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1 Jaakko Laitinen & Väärä Raha Yö Rovaniemelläö (Helmi Leyt Records Helmi055). Second album from the inventors of the Lapland-Balkan genre, who pride themselves on their ability to adapt between front rooms and festival arenas. The pack- age – of tall story-telling, unusual musical arrangements and wintry inlay photos – is compelling, but the unimaginative produc- tion rather conceals this.
www.helmilevyt.com
1 Sheelanagig Cirque Insomnia (Own label, no cat no). Lots going on with the lat- est helping of West Country-inspired Balkan lunacy. This time name checks for Vlad The Inhaler (imagine a vampire with a sniffin’ habit) and a tumbling version of the old dance tune La Rotta. Loads more geeks and freaks besides, late nights guaranteed.
www.sheelanagig.co.uk
The albums – good (2), adequate (1) and bad (@) – which didn’t get the full-length treatment, contributed individually by a selection of our various reviewers cowering under the cloak of collective anonymity.
2 Lisa Knapp Hunt The Hare: A Branch Of May (Ear To The Ground). While we continue to wait
patiently for a new album, Lisa whets the appetite with this thoughtful and thought- provoking five-track EP homage to May. Alas- dair Roberts duets powerfully in an exciting collision between the English tradition and nu-folk, sound effects and all, and one Bjork- esque Knapp original song Green Jack.
www.lisaknapp.co.uk
2 Willis Earl Beal Acousmatic Sorcery (XLCD564). Lo-fi oddball musical bastard child of Ted Hawkins and Gil Scot Heron, home- recorded on a cassette ghettoblaster and primitive instruments, but absolutely rivet- ting all the same as it veers from field holler to rapped poetry. You might have seen this 20-something black Chicago one-off on Later recently. Warning: comes packaged with his brief pornographic novel (er, why?)
www.willisearlbeal.com
@ Céu Caravana Sereia Bloom (Six Degrees 657036–11852). Brazilian pop diva Céu offers such profundities as Fffree (“…a road inside of me, don’t know where it’s going to lead”), Streets Bloom (“When I die I’ll not be aware of who I am”) and the Lloyd Robinson-Glenmore Brown ska chestnut You Won’t Regret It. At least in Portuguese she’s inoffensively cloyed.
www.sixde-
greesrecords.com
2 Andar Storms (Appel APR 1339). Belgian based aggregation of Irish, Scots, Flemish and Dutch musicians who ply the Celtic trade. The nautically-flavoured song pile yields some gently stirring performances especially from Helen Flaherty. Musically solid box/fiddle frontline with picaresque stringed backing, pleasurable moments abound.
www.andar-
music.com/www.denappel.be
2 Sayaka Ikuyama Light (Tambourine TAMCD002). Japanese Celtic harpist on her second solo outing. Light finds a musician obviously versed in Irish and Scots means and pyrotechnics. Charming delicacy and some delightful turns of stylistic phrase inhabits her playing and makes for a sumptuous aural experience.
www.tambourine-japan.com
1 Madredeus The Spirit Of Lisbon – The Very Best Of (Nascente NSDCD030). 1987- 2005 compilation from well-known Lisbon classical guitars and synth band, all with high- floating voice of long-serving Teresa Salgueiro before current rebirth (including April’s Lon- don show) with her replacement. Double CD for under £6, but leaflet notes, telling band history but not the songs’ content, crammed into microscopic, largely illegible fonts.
www.demonmusicgroup.co.uk/nascente
1 Bram Taylor Jokers And Rogues (Fell- side FECD246). This engaging and compan- ionable collection (Bram’s tenth) provides ample proof of the appeal and longevity of good old-fashioned, well sung easy-listen, old-school performances of contemporary and traditional folk material. Bram’s con- summate vocal mastery is stylishly backed by a handful of modestly accomplished fel- low-musicians.
1 Place Klezmer Amerika! (Playa Sound PS66423). A strange and unassuming meeting of trombone and accordeon that repeatedly reflects trombonist Jean Lucas’s background in traditional music and chanson. Lucas and excellent accordeonist Yves Beraud style themselves as “the world’s smallest klezmer band” but their album presents occasionally groundbreaking ideas and big sounds.
www.myspace.com/placeklezmer
2 Woody Pines You Gotta Roll (Own label, no cat no). Starts off like a Lonnie Donegan tribute band as North Carolina quartet mix acoustic and electric instruments on lively EP of well-played songs.
www.woodypines.com
1 Dona Rosa Sou Luz (Jaro Medien JARO 4309–2). Self-accompanied on triangle, this blind Lisbon street singer’s gravelly alto capti- vated documentary filmmaker André Heller and brought her wider attention. With Por- tuguese guitar, guitar, violin, cello, bass, accordeon, piano and percussion backing, she performs a blend of originals and traditional Portuguese and Brazilian songs.
www.jaro.de
Knapp’s in May
1 Majorstuen Live In Concert (Majorstuen Fiddlers Company MFC04). Popu- lar band of leading youngish Norwegian fid- dlers: Synnøve S Bjørset, Gjermund Larsen, Jorun Marie Kvernberg, Andreas Ljones and cellist/fiddler Tove Hagen revisit their fine tunes, but tracks tend to stop before they really fly, and would flow better without the applause from an audience too small to really energise.
www.majorstuen.biz
2 Gerard Edery Edery Sings Yupanqui (Sefarad Records SEFREC 5780). Guitarist- singer Edery met and performed for the leg- endary Argentine singer-songwriter Atahual- pa Yupanqui (1908–1992) at a dinner after his final Carnegie Hall performance in 1991; this is Edery’s tribute, and a worthy one it is.
www.gerardedery.com
1 Various Artists Beginner’s Guide to Salsa, 4th Edition (Nascente NSBOX091). DJ Lubi Jovanovic tags 36 tracks for this three-CD mash-up covering the marketing categories “salsa classica” (sic), “salsa moderna” and “salsa dura” for those seeking a mostly sec- ond-class party mix that signals laid-back con- sumer savoir faire if not connoisseurship.
www.nascente.co.uk
2 Hillfolk Noir Radio Hour (Own label, 700261 34982 4). From Boise, Idaho, original music that bridges a gap between old-time county, blues and anything American. Quirky singer, writer and guitarist Travis Ward leads quartet with spirit and no little ability. Good fun and refreshingly different. www.hillfol-
knoir.com
1 Jenna Reid Morning Moon (Lofoten Records, LOFCD002). Well-known Shetland fiddler performs traditional tunes and her own compositions, accompanied by piano, guitar, flute, drums, double-bass and accor- dion. Some lovely tunes: Jenna’s composition The Greenside particularly. Compared with her previous work, some tracks here feel over-accompanied, by drums especially.
www.jennaandbethanyreid.co.uk/jennasolo
2 Malcolm Bushby Islands (Shearwater Music, SWMCD004). Impressive debut. Young Scottish-Tasmanian fiddler, now UK-based, plays Scottish and Irish traditional tunes, accompanied superbly by guitar, bouzouki, flute, piano, bodhran whistle, pipes. There’s a deep richness to his playing, and he draws every drop of feeling from the melodies.
www.malcolmbushby.com
Photo: Ivy Bower
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